CoinCeylon
Organized by
CoinCeylon
In partnership with
University of Kelaniya, Faculty of Computing and TechnologyCenter for Data Science and Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science Students’ Association, University of Kelaniya
Event partners
CardanoMidnightIntersect

The Largest Inter-University
Blockchain Hackathon
in Sri Lanka

20+ universities. Build on Cardano, Midnight, or both for this year’s theme, Blockchain for Real-World Adoption.

  1. 10 – 17 Nov
    Registrations open
  2. 17 Nov – 15 Dec
    Building phase & workshops
  3. 17 Dec
    Finale event
Register your teamRegister now Hackathon detailsDetails
Closes 17 Nov

Hackathon details

Everything you need to know about UniHack 2026.

2026 theme

Blockchain for Real-World Adoption

Create products and services on Cardano, Midnight, or both, that solve a real problem for real users and have a clear way to be adopted and sustained.

Objectives

  • Give university students practical, hands-on experience building on Cardano and Midnight, Cardano’s privacy-focused partner chain
  • Encourage working products with clear user value and a realistic path to adoption
  • Strengthen collaboration among Sri Lanka’s academic institutions, tech communities and industry

Challenge categories

Build practical products and services on Cardano, Midnight, or both. Each category is a guideline. Original ideas are welcome, including ones with social benefit and a sustainable model.

Digital Finance & Real-World Assets

Payments, settlement and tokenised representations of real-world value. Be clear about what each token represents.

  • Tokenised invoices for SME financing
  • Digital records of property or equipment shares
  • Merchant payments and receipts
  • Marketplace escrow and settlement

Business & Digital Services

Services that businesses and customers would adopt or pay for.

  • Supply-chain provenance for exports
  • Event ticketing and loyalty programmes
  • Verified tourism bookings
  • Verifiable certificates and credentials

Privacy & Trusted Applications

Apps where people or businesses need to prove something without revealing everything, a natural fit for Midnight’s selective disclosure.

  • Proving age or eligibility without sharing a full ID
  • Confidential business bids and deals
  • Private access to healthcare or financial services

Entertainment & Gaming

Products for gaming, music, film and live events that improve access, distribution or creator income.

  • Esports tournament platforms
  • Event ticketing and access
  • Creator subscriptions
  • Music or film licensing and royalty management

Governance & Social Impact

Tools that help governments, private organisations and communities make decisions, manage funding and deliver accountable services.

  • Privacy-preserving voting and eligibility checks
  • Transparent procurement and budget tracking
  • Grant distribution
  • Verifiable public-service records

These examples give direction, but you are encouraged to develop outside them. Judges will appreciate practical, well-built products that real users would choose.

Prize structure

Total prize pool 500,000
  1. First place 250,000
  2. Second place 150,000
  3. Third place 100,000

Judging criteria

Evaluated by industry and academic professionals.

Innovation 20%
A fresh solution, with a clear reason to use Cardano, Midnight or both
Technical Execution 25%
A working prototype, sound blockchain use and code quality
Viability & Adoption 30%
Clear users and value, a credible payer or funding model, and a realistic path to use. Early evidence or clearly stated assumptions are enough; revenue is not required.
Pitch & Demo 25%
A clear explanation and a demonstration of what works

Submission guidelines

All submissions must:

  • Use Cardano, Midnight, or both in a meaningful way
  • Be open-sourced with an Apache 2.0 license on a public GitHub repository
  • Include basic documentation and a short video demo (2–4 minutes)

In your documentation or demo, briefly explain who the product is for, how it could be sustained, and where blockchain or privacy adds value.

Submission deadline 15 December 2026

Hybrid applications that harness both Cardano and Midnight technologies will be looked at favourably.

Technical resources & tools

Recommended Cardano and Midnight tools.

Cardano

  • Cardano Developer PortalOfficial starting point: step-by-step curriculum, SDKs and templates
  • CIP LibraryCardano Improvement Proposals, the shared standards for wallets, tokens and metadata
  • Smart contract languagesAiken (recommended starting point), or Plinth (Haskell, formerly Plutus Tx), OpShin (Python) and Scalus (Scala 3)
  • Mesh SDKTypeScript toolkit for building transactions and connecting web apps to wallets
  • Hosted chain-data APIsBlockfrost, Koios (community-run, distributed) and Demeter (TxPipe; managed Ogmios, Kupo and Blockfrost-compatible APIs, free tier for hackathon teams)
  • Advanced, self-hostedOgmios (WebSocket bridge to a Cardano node), Kupo (lightweight chain indexer) and Dolos (TxPipe lightweight data node)
  • Wallets and test ADALace, Eternl, and the testnet faucet

Midnight

  • Midnight Developer Docs and Get startedSet up the toolchain and Lace, then build a first DApp. Zero-knowledge proofs and selective disclosure let an app prove a fact without revealing the underlying data.
  • Compact languageMidnight’s smart contract language for public and private logic
  • Compact Midnight IDEWrite and try Compact contracts in the browser
  • Examples and tutorialsSample contracts and DApps, e.g. a private auction and a ZK loan
  • Test tokensGet free tNIGHT from the Preprod or Preview faucet and generate DUST for fees

Encourage innovation: you’re not limited to these tools. Explore other Cardano and Midnight tools, and integrate AI, IoT or other technologies where they help your product. Build on test networks only, and never commit seed phrases or private keys.

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Sessions

                
    
                    
  1. 
                        
                        
    
                            Session 01
                            
    Kick-off Technical Session
    
                            
    
                            
    
                                
                                
                            
    
                        
    
                        
                    
    2. 
                

            

        


        

            

                

                    
UniHack 2025

                    
The first edition. Final pitch day at the University of Kelaniya, 12 July 2025.

                


                

                    

                        
61

                        
Teams

                    

                    

                        
18

                        
Universities

                    

                    

                        
226

                        
Participants

                    

                    

                        
10

                        
Finalists

                    

                    

                        
300K

                        
Prize pool

                    

                


                
Winners

                

                    

                        Team Vertex receiving the UniHack 2025 champions award
                        

                            1st place
                            Vertex
                            University of Kelaniya
                        

                    

                    

                        Team PACY receiving the UniHack 2025 second place award
                        

                            2nd place
                            Team PACY
                            Informatics Institute of Technology
                        

                    

                    

                        Team BlockStar receiving the UniHack 2025 third place award
                        

                            3rd place
                            BlockStar
                            University of Kelaniya
                        

                    

                

                Full UniHack 2025 results and gallery
            

        


        

            

                
UniHack 2025 highlights

                

                    
                

            

        

        

            

                
Organizers & partners

                

                        

                            Organized by
                            
CoinCeylon

                        

                        

                            In partnership with
                            
University of Kelaniya, Faculty of Computing and TechnologyCenter for Data Science and Artificial IntelligenceComputer Science Students’ Association, University of Kelaniya

                        

                        

                            Event partners
                            
CardanoMidnightIntersect

                        

                

            

        


        

            

                
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